Mr Guo made no mention of his disappearance last Thursday when he appeared at the company’s annual meeting in Shanghai on Monday. The incident forced the company to halt trading in Fosun-related shares and, apart from a statement saying that Mr Guo was assisting ‘the mainland judicial authorities’ with ‘certain investigations’, no information has been provided by the company.

Share price drop

The incident has sent jitters around the world because Fosun has been actively pursuing overseas acquisitions and is well-known outside China. Investors are clearly worried, with shares in both the group's Hong-Kong-listed subsidiaries, Fosun International and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, dropping more than ten per cent. 

Anti-corruption campaign 

A number of senior executives at Chinese companies have temporarily gone missing in the past few months, after Beijing launched a series of investigations into brokerages earlier this year. Some believe this is part of the wider anti-corruption campaign intended to clean up various parts of China's economy, including the financial sector. Sources: The Australian Financial Review; BBC News